Chapter Three
KARL
Karl finally made himself leave his peaceful spot observing the cats to go meet them.
He emerged from the trees just as Tristan succeeded in luring Mayhem away from the food table with a handful of lettuce.
Chaos watched from behind a bench like she was weighing up the best moment to pounce on an unattended burger—the kind of decision that led to a vet bill bigger than most mortgages, but which didn’t teach her a thing.
Typical. He was about to hand over partial control of security to a bunch of cats, yet goats were still the real problem.
He kept to the edge of the yard, observing.
Three of the cats were sitting at the picnic table with Dave, Jason and Riley.
He was almost sorry to have missed their reaction to meeting Riley—unless they’d treated him like he was less, just for being a non-shifter.
In which case, it was probably for the best Karl hadn’t been there.
Now, the blonde one was sitting next to Riley, close enough to signal the cats weren’t avoiding him. But like the other cats, she wasn’t relaxed. Every movement was measured, even her breathing deliberate. Or maybe that was just cats.
The long-haired one, the one that sparked alarms in Karl, had come over from the porch with Luna and Matt.
They’d settled around the kitchen table that’d been dragged outside for the purpose, with Bryce, Tom and Jesse.
The long-haired one hadn’t sat with them, and didn’t have any food.
He was planted behind Luna, scanning his surroundings with a gaze that scraped like claws, searching for what lay underneath.
Matt caught Karl’s gaze and tilted his head, an invitation to join them. Karl ground his teeth and moved across the yard. Time to play nice.
“Karl, good,” Matt said, as he approached.
“Let me introduce you. This is Luna, of course, and Leon, her head of security. Antoni, Joaquim, Ava.” Each of the names came with a brief glance or faint nod of acknowledgement from the cat in question.
“This is Karl Griffin, who runs security for my pack.”
Karl gave them each a nod in return.
Matt held his gaze. “I’m going to need you to work out details with Leon of how we coordinate. The cats will be staying on-site.”
“They’re staying here?” Somehow, Karl kept the horror out of his voice. At least, he thought he had.
“We think there’s too much ground to cover in a single day,” Luna said smoothly. “It makes sense to remain close, collaborate in person without wasting time.”
Karl let his gaze shift to Leon, standing behind Luna.
Up close, he was exactly what Karl had expected—self-contained, with that smug air every cat seemed born with.
Tall and lean, all clean lines and grace.
His clothes were black and tight, tactical but unnecessarily chic, like utility had become a fashion statement.
His hair—long, dark, and annoyingly shiny—looked like it belonged in a shampoo ad.
High cheekbones emphasized golden-amber eyes that didn’t just see but assessed, cataloged, and judged.
Nothing about him said casual. Neither the stance, nor the way he tilted his head like he was already measuring Karl for weaknesses.
The cat held himself like he didn’t just belong in a fight, but preferred it. Silent, calculating, and lethal. It was the kind of attitude Karl usually respected. But not here and not now, when he was going to have to let cats intrude, throwing everything he was holding together off balance.
Leon returned his gaze and raised an eyebrow—not quite challenging, but enough to let Karl know he wasn’t impressed.
Matt rose to his feet, and with a slight inclination of his head, got Karl to walk over to the grill with him. Helping himself to more ribs, he offered Karl some, but Karl refused. Couldn’t eat when he was wound this tight.
“You don’t have to like it, but you do have to cooperate with them,” Matt reminded him.
They’d already had this discussion—for the cats to be happy their leader was safe, they’d need to be allowed to roam the pack’s territory.
Matt was just making sure Karl would actually allow it, because Karl hadn’t been able to stand down these last few weeks.
Letting go of his control of the pack’s space, even a tiny bit, was going to be so fucking hard.
“You didn’t tell me they were going to stay,” he bit out.
“It makes sense. We don’t know how much time we have to plan and spread the word among shifters. We need to be efficient.”
Karl glanced back at the cats, checking they weren’t doing something they shouldn’t. He was mildly surprised to find none of them had pushed anything off the edge of the table. Yet.
“You really think there’re going to be problems with non-shifters?” he asked.
“I think it unlikely, given the reception Jesse’s gotten so far,” Matt said. “But we need to be prepared in case things change.”
Contingency planning was something Karl was all too familiar with. Expect the worst, plan for it, then plan for worse again. And again.
LEON
Leon watched Karl Griffin walk away with his alpha, his shoulders tight as he moved almost silently. He had no way of proving it, short of asking—which he was never going to do—but he was certain that prickling feel down his spine earlier had been Karl watching him.
Everything about the man was containment. Not only discipline but control, as if every part of him had been locked down with military precision, and anything that didn’t serve a purpose had been discarded long ago.
Except his hair told a different story. Dark brown, it fell in loose waves just past his shoulders, and Leon didn’t yet know enough to judge whether that was vanity or indifference.
Karl’s eyes were similarly dark brown, steady and watchful, framed by lashes thicker than they had any right to be.
Not that Leon had strong feelings about lashes. Obviously.
Luna loved black-and-white movies, and there was something about Karl that reminded him of those old Hollywood stars.
Not just in his bone structure, which was made for a black-and-white movie or photograph, but in the way every move was purposeful, without even a suggestion of fidgeting.
He was capable both of passing unnoticed and of commanding the attention of every person in a room.
Leon blinked slightly. He had nothing to base that on, nothing other than a feeling. Which might also be connected to the way Karl’s jeans hugged his thighs in a way that left little to the imagination. Ugh, fine. He was gorgeous.
Too bad he was a wolf. Too bad he was this wolf—territorial, prickly, deeply unimpressed, and from the way he’d been looking at Leon, almost certainly resenting his entire existence.
“Bit dramatic, Catman, standing around like you’re single-handedly guarding Fort Knox,” Bryce said, sliding up beside Leon with another glass of that offensively purple soda. “Want a cold one?”
Leon accepted it, mostly to get rid of Bryce. He’d left his previous glass—empty—on the porch.
“Y’know, we’ve been doing this a while. You can stand down,” Bryce said. “Whatever it is about Karl that’s gotten your fur on end, he’s more competent than anyone I’ve known.”
And maybe that was what had gotten Leon’s fur on end.
He was always the one who knew where everyone was, who identified where every threat could come from.
Yet he hadn’t managed to spot Karl until he melted out from the trees and into the yard, deciding to let himself be seen.
He was used to being the one watching from the shadows, and he didn’t like what it meant that Karl had seen him first.
“You sure you don’t want some of Jason’s ribs?” Bryce persisted. Friendly, yet he was studying Leon carefully, like he was trying to get to the bottom of him. “Your sister said they’re the best she’s ever tasted.”
So that was why he was so curious about Leon.
Knowing that Luna was his sister, he must be wondering about Leon’s status.
Or perhaps he was more interested in why he and Luna looked nothing alike, except for that one way they both tilted their heads when considering something.
She was blonde and short, whereas he was neither of those things.
There was no way these damn wolves were ever going to find out the reason for that.
“Your parents have any more kids? Cause other than Lily, I’m struggling to come up with more four-letter names starting with L.”
Didn’t this damn wolf ever shut up?
Leon took another look around through narrowed eyes. The other cats were keeping a careful eye on their surroundings, so it was safe for him to get away from this damn annoying wolf who reminded him of nothing so much as a golden retriever in a tactical vest.
“I’m going to eat,” Leon said, an attempt at civility for Luna’s sake before he headed over to the grill and the food laid out there. He didn’t stalk. But it might have been close.
Matt was handling tongs with practiced ease, adding more skewers to the grill. He greeted Leon with a brief smile and a nod, like this sort of mixing between cats and wolves happened every day.
Karl, meanwhile, had taken up a stance that screamed reluctantly tolerant.
His gray Henley was tight enough to show the curve of muscle and to emphasize the breadth of his shoulders.
He had a quiet, capable strength Leon’s instincts immediately wanted to challenge—like a space marked off limits, which of course only made it more appealing.
Karl didn’t turn his head when Leon approached. He just said, “Tofu’s on the top rack. Should be done in five.”
Leon arched a brow at his back. “You say that like you expect me to eat it.”
Karl glanced over his shoulder, eyes unreadable. “You’re the one who wanted food.”
Leon shrugged. “Food’s just the excuse. I wanted distance.”
That earned him a flicker of something—almost amusement? Karl didn’t smile, exactly, but the corner of his mouth shifted a fraction. And why the hell was Leon studying his lips so closely? Thinking about how they might feel, how Karl might taste…
“I know the feeling,” Karl said, yanking Leon back to reality. Wolf. He returned his gaze to the flames.
The resulting silence left Leon space to think about Bryce.
About how he’d breezed in all superficial charm and annoyance, distracting Leon with his persistence and crappy sense of humor.
Now that he thought about it, that had probably been on purpose.
Bryce probably put people off guard with appalling jokes so that he could read them better.
He had to be more effective than he seemed for Matt to have him as his beta.
Matt caught his gaze and evidently read his frustration with the entire situation. “We’ll sort out the arrangements after lunch.”
“Good,” he said, with the suggestion of a hiss. “Because right now, I’m guarding my queen in a strange environment without the freedom to do what I need to.” All while surrounded by wolves—though he bit that part back just in time. “Just fantastic.”
Matt nodded, letting that land with a quiet sort of acknowledgement. He wasn’t like any wolf alpha Leon had met before, any of whom would have puffed up, full of self-important pomposity at being criticized.
“We’ll make it work,” Matt said.
Leon’s gaze slid to Karl. No doubt it would be left to the two of them to make it work. “That’s what everyone keeps saying.”
Karl still hadn’t looked back at him. “You have a better idea?”
“Yeah. Luna stays in a nice, secure hotel with room service, locked doors and sealed windows. Safer for everyone.”
Karl turned, brows lifting a millimeter, challenge in his eyes. “You think I don’t know there’s always risk?”
Leon met his gaze without flinching. “I think you hate not being able to control it.”
He didn’t know why he said it. But something in him recognized something in Karl, the way his shoulders had stiffened, almost imperceptibly, when Matt said we’ll make it work.
That reluctance to cede any control to strangers—yeah, if he were feeling charitable, which he wasn’t because wolf, he might admit that he’d struggle if he had to allow wolves free access to his territory.
He knew what it was to stay on guard even when things seemed safe. He’d learned young never to stop assessing threat, no matter how safe he felt. The safer he felt, the more dangerous it was—that was when he’d been blindsided. He’d never seen the betrayal coming.
The silence that followed wasn’t long, but it was weighted. The tightness in Karl’s jaw looked like something weary. Like someone running the same mental calculations for the thousandth time, and still not liking the answer.
Matt was evidently keenly aware of the tension between them and just as clearly letting them settle it themselves. Leon’s estimation of him rose another notch.
Karl finally breathed out. “Unfamiliar means unpredictable. Yeah. I know that one.” He looked at Leon squarely. “We’re both looking at unpredictable variables with combat training. And in the case of your cats? A superiority complex.”
Leon felt the corner of his mouth twitch before he could stop it. Not quite a smile. Not quite not. Touché, wolf.
Karl Griffin wasn’t what he’d expected. And Leon hated being surprised. He hated it almost as much as he wanted to test how far that composure really went.